Dogs (sorry!)

[carabos]

Next door have two dogs. One Collie cross type and one Staffie cross type. They bark and bark and bark. They are let out into the very small enclosed space at the front of the (terrace) house and also into the small enclosed yard at the back.

Whenever they are out, front or back, they bark frantically and leap up at the fence whenever anyone walks past. Fences front and back are just high enough to stop them getting over, but they can, and do jump high enough to appear that they will get out.

The day consists of listening to the awful barking invariably followed by small child screaming in fright as it is minding its own business on the pavement - dogs being aware of kids before kids aware of them iyswim?

Primary school at the end of our road, so as you can imagine this goes on at school run times constantly and intermittently throughout the day.

No point talking to the neighbours - he threatens to hit anyone who complains to him about anything (and there's a lot to complain about) so we tend not to get involved. However, I can't stand much more of this and wonder which authority is best to report it to? I'm convinced that the Collie is going to jump over and bite someone before too much longer.

If you call the council they can send someone over to stand and monitor the noise.

I had to do it when a neighbour left a puppy on it's own in the garden while she worked all day.

Have a look at this site

Have a chat with local police and suggest they do some preventative policing.
RSPCA could investigate their conditions too.

I think your only option is the Local Council. I know what this scenario is like, believe me. Thankfully our neighbours moved and it stopped. You have my sympathies.

Call your local council enviromental officer, they will ask you to make a Nuisence Diary, where you record each occasion you hear the noise and how long it goes on for ( i know, its a pain, but its worth doing) they wil then often bring you recording equipment to get further evidence. In the mean while, they will send a letter to your neighbour to inform him of the complaint (no names will be given) and ask him to reply and/or make suitable ajustments to stop the noise nusience.
If you really cannot wait this long, you can try a sonic "barkstopper" device. This sends out a sonic tone towards the dog whenever the noise sets it off, the dog is supposed to stop baking as it gets fed up with the noise in relation to the barking. We had one aimed at our neighbours garden over the fence, as their dog kept barking, and he would set ours off too! It has seemed to make a difference, but it took about a week to notice.
Hope this rambling msg helps!

Thanks bubby. DH went to the pet shop to ask about the sonic device but got this reaction and was told that they don't sell them because they are cruel. His advice was to call the RSPCA, but I don't think the dogs are mistreated as such.

Ffs sonic devices are less cruel than putting an untrained dog to sleep. I hate all this british fusspotness. A country that is unable to regulate their dangerous dogs and dangerous owners should embrace training aids of any description

A lot of people can hear sonic alarms. I certainly can. One of my neighbours bought one and I didnt sleep for quite few weeks until I worked out what it was and where the noise was coming from! Imagine a really high pitched tone. It was like nails down a blackboard.

Contact the council about advice on the noise. Dogs shouldnt be allowed to bark all day, it must be doing your head in.

I understand your worries about the collie jumping over the fince and biting a child but in my experience (I work with dogs) dog wardens are reluctant to do anything unless there has been an actual event, like if the dog actually has jumped over or behaved in a threatening way. That said, it might be worth contacting the dog warden, they might have been reported already.

It was either a sonic device or complaints about our dog continually joining in the barking as well, so, sorry, we are all in favour of them in this house! We only had to use it for a couple of weeks, and things got a lot quieter, and after that we have only turned it on when the barking started to escalate. Our Council had told our neighbours to get a "shock" or "spray" collar to stop the dogs, now, IMHO, they are cruel, one give an electric shock, the other sprays citronella or anouther strong smell in the dogs face, give me the sonic thing everytime.The dogs did not seem distressed, they stopped barking and cocked their head to one side to listen, they did not run around their garden whining or trying to hide.

The sonic devices aren't cruel and you can buy them at Pets at Home. Bought one for my mam's collie and my collie when I still lived at home and they used to set each other off barking. Like bubby said, the dogs seemed more puzzled by the noise than distressed by it.

I would find someone else's sonic alarm very annoying.

I agree with the suggestion of contacting the council.

The RSPCA are unlikely to do anything, they are an utterly useless charity more interested in political point scoring than animal welfare.

Contact the council and environmental health. You could also contact a local animal charity - do you have a Blue Cross nearby? To most people keeping a dog like a collie in this way with no stimulation or exercise is very cruel.

Sonic devices are ok, as a last resort, but if people treated their dogs properly and trained them from day one, they wouldn't be a problem. I have met terriers that are an exception and are barkers, though.

The sonic device is ok as long as there aren't any other dogs about. Personally i would do damage to someone who was using one on a dog and it upset my well behaved dog. Bit like someone swearing at their little kids and mine overheared it.

The environmental health will get involved, which, if he is as you describe, will get the dogs put down.

I disagree on the RSPCA, Callisto.

The reason they have been unable to do anything in many cases is because the law said harm must have already occurred before they can legally intervene. Recently the law changed so that owners now have a "duty of care" to their animals. However I don't know whether it is within the RSPCA's remit to stop pets being a nuisance or hazard to others.

I cant abide the RSPCA

Years ago a really sorry looking dog just walked into our house (lovely warm day so door was open) and plonked himself down on the rug infront of the TV . He was a dear old soul and we drove around trying to find the owners, walked the streets etc. In the end we stupidly rang the RSPCA incase someone had reported him missing, we EXPRESSLY asked them to let us know if no-one claimed him as we would love to be considered to be able to give him a home for him to see out his final days. We were so worried they would PTS but the person assured us they wouldnt.

Never heard anything for about a week so assumed the owners had collected him. Rang the RSPCA up just for an update only to get told he had been PTS as no-one had claimed him. Apparently there was a note on the file about us but they "forgot" to contact us.

I'll never forget that poor dog and thats only one of many many reasons why I would never ever ring the RSPCA for any advice ever again. They just cant be trusted to do the right thing IMO

Unless there is neglect this is not a matter for the RSPCA. They do not deal with noise nuisance, not ever. They are an alleged welfare organisation and, incidentally, they have no more powers in law than you or I.

The appropriate action is to make a formal report to your local council's environmental health department, whose standard response is, as bubby said, to ask you to compile a diary of the nuisance.

You can also contact your council's anti-social behaviour department and ask them to intervene, assuming that your council has one. Equally, if your council still has a specifically employed dog warden you can ask them to visit the neighbour and advise. Many councils no longer have a DW service - all by law MUST have someone to collect strays but thats all they have to provide so often the full service by a qualified DW is dispensed with owing to cutbacks - generally a DW service is something which councils resent spending money on.

As for the sonic devices which someone said aren't cruel because they are sold in Pets At Home... they sell cigarettes in my village store, that doesn't mean that they are healthy or a good thing to invest in.

A dog barking and jumping at a fence does not go hand in hand with any form of aggression to people. Many dogs will be either loud and attention-seeking at fences or even "fence-aggressive" (i.e. very arsey when they are on one side and someone and/or another dog is on the other) without harming a soul once they and the person/dog on the other side don't have a fence boundary in the way. Chances are that these particular dogs are boundary guarding with loud noise partially out of defensiveness and protectiveness, partially out of utter boredom.

And Birds, if the dogs get out the correct thing to do is indeed call the dog warden. Sick as our society is, unless the dog warden seizes them as strays, takes them to the pound, whereupon the owner refuses to pay the release fee and the dogs subsequently have neither a new home nor a rescue place to go to after 7 days have elapsed, they will not be killed (or "put to sleep" as some prefer to call it) merely for displaying the behaviour which the OP has described.